These comments are responses
to the questions listed below,
which were generated in regard to the Richard Stanek
Interview of 04-30-2012.

Overview

Hennepin County Sheriff Richard Stanek
describes how he has realigned his agency to fit a shrinking budget
while also reducing crime. The budget shortfalls are here to stay, he
says, and public officials should acknowledge that and seek ways to do
more with less. He suggests consolidating county and municipal
services, where possible and where there is overlap. The sheriff
should target violent and habitual offenders and leave lesser crimes
to local police, he said. Stanek advocates that the sheriff remain an
elective, not appointive, office.

Response Summary: Readers have been
asked to rate, on a scale of (0) most disagreement, to (5) neutral, to
(10) most agreement, the following points discussed by

Sheriff Richard Stanek. Average
response ratings shown below are simply the mean of all readers’
zero-to-ten responses to the ideas proposed and should not be
considered an accurate reflection of a scientifically structured poll.

1. Wasteful overlap exists.

(8.5 average response)
Wasteful overlap of public safety
exists between municipal police departments and county sheriffs in
Minnesota.

2. Consolidate in sheriff's office.

(7.4 average
response) Many municipal public
safety functions should be consolidated in the sheriff’s office.

3. Target violent crime.

(6.6 average response)
The sheriff should target violent
and habitual offenders and leave lesser crimes to local police.

4. Elect sheriff.

(7.8 average response)
The sheriff should remain an
elected—not appointive—office.

5. Don't consolidate.

(4.4 average response)
Leave municipal police departments
as they are, separate from the county sheriff.

Response Distribution:

Strongly disagree

Moderately disagree

Neutral

Moderately agree

Strongly agree

Total Responses

1. Wasteful overlap exists.

0%

0%

10%

45%

45%

20

2. Consolidate in sheriff's office.

5%

5%

15%

40%

35%

20

3. Target violent crime.

5%

10%

25%

45%

15%

20

4. Elect sheriff.

5%

0%

15%

35%

45%

20

5. Don't consolidate.

25%

20%

25%

15%

15%

20

Individual Responses:

John P. Mills (5) (5) (5) (7.5) (7.5)

Al Kokesch (10) (10) (7.5) (5) (0)

Dave Broden (7.5) (10) (2.5) (10) (0)

1. Wasteful overlap exists. Clearly
there is duplication of effort, so finding the best way to provide
these services would bring benefits. The key is to do this without
loss of local interface and contact.

2. Consolidate in sheriff's office.
Consolidating functions that can be done without direct citizen impact
is beneficial and recommended.

3. Target violent crime. Coordination of
efforts to (address) both lesser crimes and higher level offenders is
a must. Finding the first-timers and working to prevent recurrence
will reduce in (the) long term the violent and habitual criminals.

4. Elect sheriff. Election maintains
citizen connection which can be key to public support in law
enforcement.

5. Don't consolidate. An increased level
of interfacing and coordination will be beneficial to both sides.

Bruce A. Lundeen (7.5) (5) (7.5) (7.5) (2.5)

1. Wasteful overlap exists. The problem
will be taking away the authorities that municipal police departments
have been accustomed to managing.

5. Don't consolidate. A more empowered
Sheriff's department would assist in oversight of a Police Department
that has been noted for abuse of authority, misconduct, and brutality.
It was a Hennepin County Sheriff's Captain that brought attention to
document shredding by closing down the office and bringing about an
investigation.

2. Consolidate in sheriff's office.
Dispatch, major investigations could be put into the sheriff's office.
If the city wants additional law enforcement services and passes their
own ordinances, they should continue to have patrol functions and
investigations.

3. Target violent crime. It depends on
which area of the state in which we live. Our county is large (3000
sq. miles) but only has two police departments in addition to the
sheriff's office.

4. Elect sheriff. The sheriff needs to
be independent and autonomous.

5. Don't consolidate. Only if the cities
have the political will and capacity to tax their citizens for the
increased services provided by city police.

W.D. (Bill) Hamm (5) (0) (7.5) (10) (10)

1. Wasteful overlap exists. Local
control of these public servants is much more important than their
perceived concepts of efficiency. A strong example in this piece is
the lie this man told about what has been behind the reduction in
crime; he totally ignored the fact that increased private pistol
permits are one of the largest factors.

2. Consolidate in sheriff's office.
Local Police are under local control; this Sheriff clearly isn't.

3. Target violent crime. If we are
talking about violent crime, yes. The big problem in Minnesota is the
racist attacks against Black and Native Americans over marijuana. This
(speaker) and his buddies are arresting 9 times as many of these
non-violent users of one of this planet’s oldest medicinal herbs as
whites to keep their buddies employed. This makes us one of the most
racist states in the nation, and when you look at the drug war issues
it gets even worse than that. These (people) control the dealers and
harvest victims like a crop.

4. Elect sheriff. It is our only way to
control these elitist (people).

5. Don't consolidate. The more
separation we have the better for ‘we the people’. Consolidation only
increases the police state mentality held by some of these public
servants.

Don Anderson (7.5) (7.5) (7.5) (7.5) (5)

1. Wasteful overlap exists. This is
probably more common in out-state areas than in the metropolitan area.
Many metro area cities are big enough to warrant their own
departments.

2. Consolidate in sheriff's office.
Again this is more in out-state areas than in the metro area.

3. Target violent crime. The level of
expertise required in dealing with violent and habitual offenders does
require a higher level of expertise than more city police departments
can afford. Eliminating duplication of specialists would be
appropriate.

5. Don't consolidate. In larger
municipalities this would not be as feasible as it would be in smaller
departments.

Scott Halstead (10) (7.5) (0) (10) (0)

2. Consolidate in sheriff's office. All
public safety functions should (be) consolidated. That applies to
Ramsey County also. The County attorney should provide all public
safety related legal service.

5. Don't consolidate. We have too many
layers of government in the metro area. We have the population density
to provide rapid effective police service. We need to reduce the
number of municipalities and school districts. There shouldn't be any
split cities within a school district.

Paul Gilje (10) (10) (10) (0) (0)

Anonymous (7.5) (7.5) (5) (10) (2.5)

Chuck Slocum (10) (7) (8) (5) (5)

1. Wasteful overlap exists. The key is
experimenting and finding smarter ways to do the job; applaud Sheriff
Stanek on his interest and progress.

2. Consolidate in sheriff's office. Likely true but should be
carefully thought through as part of a larger plan to maximize public
safety.

4. Elect sheriff. Some would argue that the less "politics" in
police work, the better the public is served. Elections=politics.

5. Don't consolidate. In some instances, this may make it more
difficult to do more with less, a permanent budget concern of all
levels of government, as the Sheriff said.

6. Comment: Thanks to the Sheriff and the Civic Caucus for this
report. With 22% of the state’s population and 42% of the serious
crime, Hennepin county and its abundant resources can lead the way in
finding effective inter-governmental cooperation to collectively
address the critical public safety issues. A potential model for other
areas of the state. Heartily endorse the notion of police working with
young kids in their neighborhoods as part of the strategies necessary
to reduce crime.

Alan Miller (7) (2) (5) (9) (9)

Chuck Lutz (10) (9) (9) (10) (2)

John Nowicki (10) (10) (5) (10) (10)

Congrats. You finally have a hands-on person
and not a consultant.

Carolyn Ring (8) (8) (9) (6) (2)

Al Quie (10) (10) (10) (10) (0)

Paul and Ruth Hauge (8) (7) (7) (7) (5)

Wayne Jennings (9) (5) (5) (5) (7)

Although the general principle of
consolidation makes sense, I don't know enough about the specifics to
comment on a number of these items.

Lyall Schwarzkopf (8) (7) (8) (6) (5)

The Civic Caucusis a non-partisan,
tax-exempt educational organization. The Core participants
include persons of varying political persuasions, reflecting years of leadership in politics and
business. Click here to see a short personal background of each.